Sweeney writes that it’s about streamlining and efficiency. He notes that 48 of the 59 trustee board appointments are made by the board of governors anyway. Apparently alluding to Rutgers’ recent, expensive athletic department problems, the lawmaker asks how you get accountability when policy is set by 74 individuals on two different boards.

Penn State (maybe not the best example of a proactive college governing body) has a 32-member board of trustees. Look at how much trouble they got into with fewer than half as many board-sitters as Rutgers.

Unfortunately, Sweeney tried to streamline Rutgers by sneaking through a bill to dump the trustee board. S-2902 never went through a committee and was never vetted by Rutgers. A full Senate vote on June 27 was postponed, since criticism by other lawmakers and alumni had reached fever pitch, especially in North Jersey. Trustees talked about filing a lawsuit. Editorials accused Sweeney of vindictively trying to eliminate a panel that helped scuttle plans to have Rowan University fully devour Rutgers’ Camden campus.

The Senate president handled this clumsily and got the reaction he deserved. A rival bill (A-4341), introduced recently by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, would create a panel to recommend changes in Rutgers’ governance. Eliminating a trustee board needs more deliberation than Sweeney’s surprise vote gave it, though it doesn’t need to be studied to death.

Good reasons for two boards escape us, even if it’s the smaller one that gets whacked.